For various reasons, there have been various needs in the industry to provide methods and apparatuses for reducing or "pulverizing" objects into relatively smaller objects, in order to provide a more efficient means for using, recycling, or disposing of the reduced objects. Examples of such methods and apparatuses include the reduction of wood into smaller wood fibers while in a water bath, or the reduction of stone into smaller elements.
The known prior art generally falls into two categories: water-based processing and air-based processing. U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,630 to Pay entitled, "Beating Device for the Continuous Processing of Material Stock", illustrates the use of water, in order to process fibrous raw materials. U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,561 to Willems, entitled "Apparatus for Simultaneous Oscillatory Treatment of Substances or Mixtures Thereof", discloses a two-stage kinematically operated high frequency generator, wherein each stage comprises at least a pair of cooperating, relatively rotating rows of members in a common pressure housing between which member of each row of cavities are defined.
Regarding air-based processing, U.S. Pat. No. 1,235,030 to Higginson, entitled "Disintegrating Machine", discloses a disintegrating, pulverizing, crushing, or the like machine within which materials such as minerals, stone, coal, coke, and the like can be reduced to a condition of fine dust or powder. As discussed in its column 2, line 34, the material processed by the Higginson device is ultimately forced by the rotating teeth 14 assisted by gravity and centrifugal into the notches between the teeth of the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,028,105 to Perrine, entitled "Multiple Cage Disintegrater", discloses a multiple cage type disintegrater, which uses a series of pins which serve as the movable disintegrater elements, secured at one end to rotatable carrier rings. The unsupported ends of the pins are interconnected and secured in a common ring designed to give stiffness to the assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,243 to Meger el. al., entitled "Disintegrating Mill" discloses a disintegrating mill for reducing solid granular material to a finer particle size. The material is forced to travel outwardly by centrifugal forces, and as the particles of material move radially outwardly, they are struck by suitable impact means formed on the cages which shatters or disintegrates the material to reduce it to a smaller size. A pair of rotors which each rotate in opposite directions are provided. It may be noted that in Meger, air is intentionally bled from the system by means of a by-pass chute 45. U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,695 to Benedikter, entitled "Disintegrater", discloses the use of two motor driven rotors which rotate in opposite direction in a housing, each of the two rotors carrying at least one circular series of working tools for treating material.
Although the above-referenced prior art includes some advantages, disadvantages and the resulting needs still persist, namely the need to provide a reducing or pulverizing apparatus which reduces, screens, and transports the processed material while maintaining a high rate of production and without the need for a recirculating chamber such as is found in the art.